YouthSpeak is a Park City event that gives 9th grade English students a chance to speak outside of the classroom in front of a larger audience of their peers and adults. This event is put on by the Park City School District, Summit County Library, and the Park City Toastmasters Club.
It will take place on Thursday, April 14th from 5:30pm to 8:00pm. Refreshments and live music will start at 5:30 and the contest will start at 6:00.
YouthSpeak is a poetry slam; students will be writing and performing original poetry. This event takes place at the conclusion of the poetry unit in their English class and students are primed in class with exposure to high quality poetry videos and other poetry resources.
The first time we put on this event in March of 2015 we were impressed with the level of authenticity, vulnerability, creativity, and performance. We have had to adapt our judging ballot afterwards in order to help us decide and discern between confidence and creativity and award students accordingly. Poetic adeptness will have greater value than a confident performance.
